1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus, and more particularly, to a driving apparatus for supplying driving signals to a plasma display panel (PDP).
2. Discussion of Related Art
A PDP is adapted to display images by exciting phosphors with Vacuum UltraViolet rays (VUV) generated when an inert mixed gas is discharged.
The PDP has advantages that it can be easily made large and thin and can be simply fabricated due to a simple structure, and has higher luminance and emission efficiency than other flat display devices. In particular, an alternating current (AC) surface discharge type three-electrode PDP is advantageous in that it has lower voltage driving and longer lifespan because wall charges are accumulated on a surface upon discharge and protect electrodes from sputtering generated by a discharge.
The PDP is driven with it being time-divided into a reset period for resetting the entire cells, an address period for selecting a cell, and a sustain period for generating a display discharge in a selected cell in order to implement gray levels of an image.
In order for a driving circuit to supply driving signals to a PDP, a plurality of switching elements and clamping diodes are required. Thus, there are problems in a rising cost due to an increased number of components and an increased size. There is also a problem in that consumption power of a panel driving circuit increases due to the increased components.
If the entire electrodes are not reset to a wall charge state for addressing during the reset period, erroneous discharge may occur or discharge may not be generated in the address period. Consequently, a problem arose in that the picture quality of display images is degraded.